Being a log of my adventures (as a player) in Legacy of the Savage Kings DCC.

The characters:

Finbar, 5th level dwarf fighter/ wizard gestalt. Finbar is the smart guy, our strategist and our only arcane spellcaster. He is an extremely upright lawful good hero and his greatest challenge thus far has been dealing with his pauper relatives who all want to borrow gold every time they see him.

Fletcher, 5th level half-elf ranger/ bard gestalt. Fletcher is a rock-solid companion with a hate-on for Giants of all sorts. Fletcher is the face, our best negotiator and the only one who knows how to act properly in a human city.

Zander, 5th level rogue/ Cleric of Fharlanghn gestalt. Zander is the moral center of the group, beckoned to wander by dream visions. His Divine Mission: to seek out temples of evil and corruption, rob them blind, and use the money for good causes. He refuses to ride in the wagon, preferring to walk along side with the road under his feet.

Otto, 3rd level Expert Henchmen. Otto is the man! Generally relegated to driving the wagon, tending to the animals, cooking and similar chores, Otto is an expert tanner and has turned many of our kills into extremely profitable rugs and wall hangings. In times of trouble our stalwart buddy who is johnny on the spot with his light crossbow - not that he hits very often.

We began this adventure in Havenor, City of Bells. Our contact there, Escobar, buys most of the Unique Items from our adventures. We visited him and he asked if we would seek out some artifacts that he has a market for, specifically barbarian weapons from the tribes far west of the Midlands. We had just come off a highly successful raid of a certain Mysterious Tower and were eager for adventure, so we agreed.

We traveled west for about six weeks in our custom craft wagon. Made in the great Dwarvish city of Gorin, it has a built-in mini forge that allows Finbar to work on his armor and weapon projects. During this trip the talented weaponsmith made a new flail to replace the one he recently lost to a Rust Monster (damn them all!).

We crossed over the mountains. On the way we had a few encounters, including a terrible two-headed giant and a massive bird of prey that almost flew off with Finbar. Good times!

We finally encountered a formidable looking barbarian at his camp. Zander presented him with a gift, a continual light torch. We exchanged greetings (although we couldn't speak his language), and through gestures and shared wine came to know that we were all friendlies. We were welcomed into camp.

The next morning Zander took the tongues spell so we could communicate. The barbarian told us a wild tale of the ancient Savage Kings and the Demon who corrupted them. He gave us directions to a forbidden area of swamp where a terrible mist hid some great evil. Of course we decided to head that way immediately.

After another several days of travel we came upon a village of barbarians. We sneaked away to prepare to meet them. The next day we came back with several more continual light torches, and a few prepared tongues spells. They greeted us graciously, providing us with food and drink. Fletch composed a song, which introduced us and told of our adventures. They seemed to like it, and laughed in all the right places.

After introductions, the chieftain let us know that the tribe had been forces from ancestral lands generations before. Most of their warriors had been killed trying to take the land back.

Well we weren't about to let that lie. Fletch promised that we would go investigate and do what we could to return their lands to them. They gratefully gave us a couple of necklaces, which they assured us would protect us.

We came to the edge of a swamp, and left Otto and the wagon.

We headed in the direction they told us. The mists grew heavier and heavier. Then we came upon a terrible scene - a black dragon, sick or corrupted or something, slaughtering a whole pack of orcs. Well, the orc slaughtering part was no big deal but we had never seen a dragon before.

The dragon charged us. We came out of the gate hard, and even though Zander ran off in fear we managed to give him enough grief that he flew away rather than get smote.

Once we had collected the mortified Zander we pressed on. We came to a bridge with a few terrified orcs. Finbar, our only orcish speaker, used diplomacy (read: threats and promises of great violence) to get them to tell us what they were up to. They were hired slavers, and said something about a "disease blade" that confounded us. They also gave us a "pass phrase," which would allow us to get past some kind of checkpoint. We told them to scram and never return, they did so cheerfully.

We came upon a plank bridge lined with skulls. We passed over it and when we did one of the skulls magically sounded the alarm. This was most likely where we were supposed to use that pass phrase.

We ran forward and discovered hidden in the mists a fortress with towers and a heavy gate and the whole nine yards. After casting a few buff spells we charged, firing missiles. Finbar threw his big gun, a fireball spell, and that took out most of the wall defenders. Zander started climbing the gate while Finbar and Fletch exchanged attacks with the tower guards (Kobolds, damn them all!)

Zander finally got over and managed to raise the gate about two feet. Finbar and Fletch ran up and slid underneath. One of the guards had run off to find help.

Now at this point we had a moment of decision. This wasn't our usual dungeon stealth operation - this was an assault against unknown quantities of defenders. Were we ready for this? Should we stay and fight? Or flee?

We decided that we had been kicking butt so far so we would stay. We climbed up into one of their wall defending towers and waited.

And that's when the massive hoard of creatures came around the corner, ready to turn us into sticky pulp.

We ran. We dropped a rope over the wall and shinnied down while they pelted us with arrows and rocks. A few folks got hit. Once we got to the far side we ran. They were right behind us. We decided to use our remaining spells to escape - we cast bull's strength and fly on Finbar, and he grabbed Zander and Fletch and flew off.

And that's when the dragon attacked.

If flew right out of the sky down on us. We had just enough time to make it to the ground before it caught up. The fight was classic, it could have gone oh so badly but it was still wounded from our first encounter and we managed to take it out in three rounds. At the end of the fight Zander was so badly mauled that he could barely go on (One Friggin Hit Point!).

We flew as far as we could, then ran all the way back to Otto and the wagon. Our plan - lick our wounds and return the next day, do our best to avoid patrols and stealth our way back into the stronghold.

Wish us luck!

Out of Game: It was an awesome adventure! When we breached the gate I felt like the Greatest Hero of All Time! And then the bad guys showed up in mass and I was more like The Runaway Bunny Rabbit. And when the dragon showed back up it was anybody's game.

Nice write up. I DMed this module some time ago and it is a gem! I'll give away no clues.

Are you gaming with the 4th edition rule set?

Did your group role play the barbarian camp or was it more of a check vs. check encounter?

I, for one, am interested in reading further. When you finish the module you'll have to check out a few of the others who have done write ups on this adventure and compare. The cool thing is each telling is quite different.

Glad you liked it JediOre. It was a ton of fun reliving last weeks game.

We are using the 3.5 rules with a fair bit of tweaking, and the gestalt character option from Unearthed Arcana.

We role played the barbarian tribe encounter. It was fun - the GM had it where the whole village laughed when we tried to pronounce the names of the kings and land and such from the stories the lone barbarian warrior had told us. We started off exchanging gifts - they came to our camp with a haunch of meat, we gave them those two continual light torches, then we cast tongues and it was on. I made one diplomacy roll for a good greeting - Fletch has something like a +11 diplomacy check or so and D gave me a bonus for the fancy magic gifts, so my final result was up in in the 27 range. The chief liked us, he REALLY liked us. Lots of fun.

The villagers plight made the dungeon personal. I am fully invested in kicking these gnolls and whatnot out of the swamp at this point. Or, as its looking at this exact second, I mean to die trying . . .

That game was actually last week. We just played again and I will post my new write up this evening.

Part two: In which our intrepid adventurers may have bitten off more than they could chew.

The next day Finbar, Fletch and Zander returned to the fortress in the swamp. We decided to go east on a smaller bridge and try to circumnavigate the front gate all together. We would post ourselves on a small island there and use the fly spell to ferry us across, unseen and unheard. Then we would use stealth to go from building to building, quietly taking out the entire army of evil. We felt very confident in our clever plan.

The plan completely fell apart quickly and quite completely.

Crossing the bridge brought us to an island with what appeared to be a toppled statue. Zander stealthed ahead to investigate. The "statue" animated and Zander nearly got brained for his troubles. Fletch and Finbar charged and brought the thing down fairly quickly.

Near where he fell we found an item, a huge onyx and silver loop with a cryptic message inside. It tested positive for magic so we experimented with it a bit – stood inside it shouting command words and the like. No dice.

It was time to make the crossing. Zander cast his fly spell on Finbar, who ferried him across. And lo! We were spotted and fired upon by a near-by tower of kobold sentries (damn them all!). Alarm bells sounded from all over the compound and the vile things start pouring into the courtyard.

We retreat. Call Kurtlulmak and tell him to give those boys a medal.

So we run, stopping and hiding about two miles from the fort. We decide to go back at night.

We left our hidden camp at twilight and marched back to the fortress. We went to one of the farther out islands – this one had two bridges, one of which had been lifted off its mooring and dropped into the water. Zander smelled trouble.

So we tried the other bridge, searching and spotting for all we were worth. And yet when Zander scouted ahead he was jumped by a group of lizardfolk, who knocked this bridge over, depositing Zander into the drink and throwing nets.

At this point violence became general. Spells and arrows flew, Zander got bitten and the bite got infected in the nasty water of the swamp. Finbar killed a bogie with a scorching ray. Fletch threw a rope and pulled his buddy out of the nasty water.

We prevail over the lizardfolk (did I mention – damn them all!) and go on searching. Fletch jumps into the water, sets the other bridge right, and we continue on that way.

We cross a few more islands, always careful to stay quiet. We finally come to a cliff wall.

A search of the wall found a tiny hole (three inches or so across) surrounded by claw marks. The ranger declares them from a dragon. We look at the marks, we look at the hole. Hmmm.

Desperate for clues, Finbar identifies our magic items (the necklace from the barbarian turns you into a Wearboar! Zander intends to wear it to his next grappling session) and we find out that the huge onyx and silver hoop we found was in fact a dragon-sized necklace of gaseous form big enough for three. Putting it all together we all put the hoop on, turn gaseous, and proceed into the hole . . .

. . . which turns out to be full of loot! The dragon’s horde! Magic items, gems and lovingly stacked coins dazzle us! We gloat over our riches for a while and decide to spend the night in the world’s most secure swamp shelter. Ah yeah.

The next morning we identify as much of our stuff as we can and make plans. Zander wakes up feeling extremely ill. Luckily all the disease talk had made him nervous so he just fixed up with a remove disease. Be prepared, Dungeon Scouts.

Plans are made over breakfast. We decide to hide here for three whole days to make them think we ran away, and attack using the fly trick, but adding all three of Fletch’s invisibility spells! Nothing could go wrong, right?

Wrong. We fly up to the two westernmost towers. With a bit of coordination we take out all eight kobold defenders before they can raise an alarm. We rule!

Peering down, we see that the compound is alive with folks working and guarding and being slaves and such. So we decide to have Finbar ferry us all down to the floor of the compound, so we can begin our Stealth Assault.

We quietly open the door we decide is the safest strategic choice, a wooden structure near the warehouse we are eager to explore. Unfortunately, inside was wall to wall kobolds – we had apparently found the barracks.

Oops.

Finbar decides that the only chance is to nuke the room. He drops a fireball that gets all of the kobolds and burns all of us. One kobold, a kind of super champion or something, runs out and escapes.

At which point Its On. We run out into the courtyard where the alarm has already been sounded. Everyone drops what they are doing and runs to join the fight. We get hit by a wave of gnolls (that Finbar drops with his last fireball), then charge into the warehouse to avoid slingers on the walls. Once inside, we join a rock fight already in progress (and let me just say those buggers had their very best day, withering us with wave after wave of rocks). A round or two later another mixed group of kobolds and gnolls charge in, followed quickly by the ogre (who had time to run and get his armor) and some more gnolls.

It got very grim very quickly. We were doing fairly well but our resources were going. Cure wounds spells were flying, our last burning hands got used and then the ogre took Fletcher out. We managed to heal Fletch and get him back to the fight but it was a narrow thing.

We finally beat the ogre and his crew – Finbar struck a critical blow and laid the big bastard out. But another group came in through the doors from inside the warehouse – and it was time to call it a night.

What will happen, folks? We killed a bunch of stuff but it seems like we are getting ready to fight this entire dungeon, one deadly wave at a time. We have a few tricks up our sleeves yet – Finbar has a few spells left, and hasn’t even broken his wand of magic missiles out. Fletch has a few 1st level spells, a few potions (including an elixir of fire breath that I can’t wait to see in action), and the most hit points remaining (18). Zander has yet to bust out his big gun spells – summon monster II AND III. So help could be here in a sec. But I literally have no idea how many foes are about to rain down upon us, and I have no idea how we could escape even if we wanted to.

Watch this space for updates!

Another awesome game from GM Duane Waldrop.

Out of Game: Duane did experience points between matches and we leveled! We all reached six and picked up a few more spells and feats and hit points and whatnot. That helped us out a bunch today. When I leveled Zander I noticed that his saving throws had not been advanced since he was 2nd level. THAT would have made a big difference in our last few games! Le Sigh.

“Lovingly stacked,” is a direct quote from the module, repeated to me, which we dug very much. Go Harley!

We house rule the identify spell. It identifies up to the caster’s level in magic items.

The next wave into the warehouse turns out to be a small group of kobolds. We are so happy its just another kobold patrol that we nearly hug them with gratitude, rather than pound them into guacamole. Nearly.

We take a breath and look around, ready for the next wave. It doesn’t seem to be on the way.

We cure wounds as quickly and best we can. Afterwards Zander has a total of three spells left, and Fletch has two zero level spells. We still have a few tricks up our sleeves but resources are running dangerously thin. We discuss bugging out, heading back to the dragons lair and hiding out for a day but we decide that we need to check the building where the ogre changed into his armor, just in case there is a chance of a surprise attack.

We pick the lock and head into the building. The foyer has a rug, and darn it but you can never trust dungeon rugs. Zander checks it out and lo! Swinging blade trap. We think its disarmed but we avoid walking on the rug anyway.

We check out a few interior rooms, including a weapon-sharpening room and a workshop, really just looking inside for more kobolds or whatever. We find a luxurious bedroom with a glowing chest. Actually glowing, not just flashing in Fletch’s mind (a la the Dragon’s Lair video game) like clues normally do. There is an archway out and we decide to check out the room beyond.

Backstab! A woman with a short sword pops out of the shadows. So convinced is Zander that this is the Dungeon Boss that he uses his big hold out spell, Summon Monster III, to sic an infernal boa constrictor on her. Finbar crunches her skull with his nifty new homemade flail. She crumples.

Too easy. Too easy by half.

So we pass through a door in the bedroom to the World Headquarters of Creepy Evil Stuff. Lab equipment, shrunken heads, torture devices, bubbling cauldron full of eyeballs . . . the whole nine yards.

And that’s where we have the closest call of our entire brief career. Out of the shadows pops some kind of witch woman who summons a fiendish wolverine to chew on poor Fletcher. A quasit jumps up and starts hurling vials of acid. And a goblin pops out from behind a table and charges into the fray, throwing a jar with some kind of powder. At this point, the entire crew is down to less than half normal hit points, we have been surprised, and we roll such incredibly sucking initiative that every one of those fiends gets to go again before we do. Add more acid, a flaming sphere in the doorway. Oh and did I mention that that infernal wolverine smites Fletch? Its looking grim.

But we rally. Fletch dodges a flaming sphere, and summons a celestial eagle into play (do I even need to say that this was the perfect place for Zander’s poorly-used boa constrictor from the last combat? No use crying over it but damn!). Finbar charges straight through the flaming sphere in the doorway and brains the witch woman. It’s a wonder he can run so quickly dragging that huge sack . . . Fletcher takes out the wolverine, the goblin charges him but that sets him up for the sneak attack. Zander obliges and takes the goblin out. The quasit turns invisible – we have no idea what happened to him but I owe him for a few acid jars.

So we survive, but we are beat to hell. We decide to hole up and sleep so we can face the rest of the compound fresh.

The next morning we get up, cure wounds and go out to search the rest of the keep. Zander wakes up sick again – probably from that powder the goblin threw. Damn his cold dead eyes! Lucky for us one of our new magic items can remove disease. Back in the pink!

I will only refer to the humiliating incident of the double-trapped glowing chest to say that if you think you are tough, try grappling a friend gone mad down for two minutes without actually hurting him.

Resting before exploring the rest of the compound winds up having been a lethal mistake. We find two pits full of dead slaves. Apparently the fiends kept them just barely alive, and being left alone for a day was enough to finish them off. If we had just gone to the pits first before we tried to secure that building . . . but you can choke on regrets your whole life. We pledge to avenge them and grant their souls what peace we can. Sad and angry, we go on.

We search the compound. At the desk in the bedroom we find an unfinished letter which gives us a clue to how to get rid of the swamp plague. We also find a loose flagstone hiding an altogether singular book, containing 77 generations of secret teachings from wise women. Hopefully one of them has a really good opinion on what I should get my wife for her wedding present.

We also discover that all of the weapons in the warehouse and in the sharpening room are those diabolic plague blades. We spend some quality time carefully taking them down, then loading them in the forge and melting them. We cover our faces up, in case melting the blades sends the disease airborne.

We walk the rest of the compound, coming up to a kind of crank elevator that leads down into the earth.

At which point Fletcher is swept away by a vision – he is a barbarian, fighting a terrible battle against a terrible demon. His kinfolk die by the dozens with every strike. He dies, killed by the demon . . .

It’s a draining moment, and Fletcher is laid out for a bit by it. Adding this clue to everything else we decide to head west and check out the cliff wall areas.

At which point its game over. Time for a delightful homemade cupcake and heading home.

A short session, but deep.

Out of game: When we finished the big fight up Zander had 1 hit point, Fletch had 3 and Finbar was barely inside of double digits. I swear there was a second where I started to think about my next character. When that witch woman went down it felt like a huge weight came off my chest. Attached to a character, much?

I felt so bad when we found the slaves dead! This is a really good game, one you get wrapped in, and that was such a bad mistake. Our failure to save them is character shaping, to say the least.

We house rule cure wounds spells – the first die is always an 8. That is probably one of the reasons we survived this dungeon.

We spend another night in the dragon’s lair, wanting to be fully healed and rimmed with spells when we approach the cliff face.

Crossing from land mass to land mass means getting into the water and putting another bridge back into its moorings, which we do without complication. Making our way across, we find a cliff face which seems to correspond to the clue in the letter in the stronghold. For once we feel like we are on track.

Feeling wrongly, it turns out.

We found a cliff face. After searching a bit, Fletch found tracks that lead us to a hidden archway that led us inside. Lizardfolk tracks. Damn them all.

We carefully sneak inside where we find four lizardfolk hunters cooking a deer. We have the drop on them and attack but one of them manages to leap into the watery cavern and sets off a warning. This is not the very worst outcome of this encounter but its extremely close to it.

The attack goes quickly enough but the damage is done – the fleeing lizard man sounds the alarm. Zander summons a porpoise to try and stop him before he gets away but “something” gets it before it can do the job.

We follow into the watery cavern. “Something” turns out to be a giant crocodile. It grabs Finbar and tries to snatch him away. Finbar struggles to escape its clutches but the beast is huge and will not be denied. Fletch attacks with his magical wooden longsword, scoring hits but barely slowing it down. Zander, who thought he had packed the perfect spell for the occasion: control water. Unleashing the spell, the crocodile finds itself waddling away on dry land . . . and waddle it does, right out of the displaced water area and into an area of extremely deep water. Fletch scores two more hits and the horrifying thing just keeps going, nearly breaking the ranger’s leg with a tail-slap for measure.

Fletch dives into the pool to rescue his nearly dead companion. Zander uses his big gun – Summon III – and adds a smaller crocodile into the battle to even the odds.

The spell turns the trick. We finally beat the crocodile and get Finbar to the surface. There is a bit of loot at the bottom of the pool – a giant pearl, a buckler and some coins. Yoink!

After a heaping helping divine first aid for our stalwart dwarf, we press on.

Beyond the hallway we find two massive double doors, each with a hole inside. Zander finds a trap and thinks he disarms it but we may never know because we can’t budge the damn things. We have plans for getting through to the other side, but decide to hold off for now.

We double back, go another way. We find some stairs up . . . and a rather warm reception! Three lizardfolk guards pour a barrel of oil down the stairs and ignite it! Finbar hits them with a burning hands and Fletch takes two out with arrows but we can’t hold off forever. All three of us wind up charging in across the flames to melee with the six lizardfolks in the back of the room. They score a couple of big hits but we take them out. Finbar brings his new flail into play and kills four single handedly!

We search the room. There is a wall of reeds and we push through to see dias, at the top of which is a pool of water and a statue. There are seven gold discs in tiled into the basin which radiate magic. What to do? We investigate the room for clues . . .

And have to call it a night. A short session again but thrilling.

Watch this space!

Out of Game: I have played D and D since 1977. Run hundreds, perhaps thousands of games, played more characters than I could ever recall. And this is the first time I have ever used (or even seen use) the control water spell. I’m glad the game still has surprises for me.

I had crappy dice all night – couldn’t win an initiative, couldn’t do much damage. Fletch rolled two crits and both times did the minimal damage (against the croc, wouldn’t you know!). That croc very nearly killed Finbar.

Circumstances made this another quick game. A shame because it was just getting hot . . .

The creature popped right out of the pool with the statue and surprised the heck out of us. We got lucky and made fairly short work of it. Never trust water in a dungeon!

We start exploring some of the side caves, discovering another door. Zander gives it the look over – no problem. The outside of the door has carved symbols, picturing a terrible battle between seven hunters and what we believe is an owlbear.

Inside is an amazing sight. A life size diorama of an owlbear fighting seven hunters. I smell trouble. Sure enough, as soon as Zander starts searching the owlbear animates and attacks. Finbar lets loose a scorching ray, then rushes to melee with the unholy thing. He takes several big wounds. Fletch shoots arrows and Zander tries – and fails! – to turn the damn thing. We finally beat it down but it’s a fairly good fight for us.

We continue searching the caverns, finding a mural of a king surrounded by lightning. It seems to tell the story of the rise of the barbarian kings. But we’re here to see about the demon that was their downfall.

We discover a trickle of water flowing down a set of rough hewn stairs. Searching carefully and finding them safe, we follow them down.

We come to a pair of double doors and what sounds like drums coming from behind them. Drums? Its never, ever good to hear drums underground. Zander tries his best to unlock the doors but it seems like they can’t be opened from this side. There is a side passage, an extremely rough tunnel, leading off this room and we decide to try it.

The passge goes two ways – one seems to go into the room behind the locked doors, and one goes into its own large cavern. We decide to try the cavern first.

We head off into the cavern. Suddenly, out of the darkness springs a giant snake! Its friggin’ huge! It snatches Zander up in its coils and starts the ‘ol squeeze play. It’s a dangerous opponent that has us in a hard spot, squeezing Zander and attacking Finbar with his fangs. If it wasn’t for the stone skin protection Finbar had placed upon him he would have been a goner for sure.

Zander decides to use the ace he’s been saving – the magical necklace! In an instant the snake is attempting to tackle a massive wearbear in hybrid form. Suck it, squamate! This turns the fight a bit, making it into a slightly more fair wrestling match. Fletch and Finbar put the real damage to the foul beast and we eventually kill it. We rejoice, as Otto can assuredly turn the evil thing into twenty-nine pairs of snake skin dungeon boots. Bam that’s money!

Following the passage around we circumnavigate the locked doors and find a huge debris filled room with several side passages, paths carved through rubble and a single lizard man playing the drums. Pa rum pa pum pum!

We have a quick discussion of the situation. It he a part of an elaborate alarm system? Does the beat somehow keep monsters at bay? We finally decide that Fletch will get his own drum with summon instrument and match the things beat as the others charge in and smite him. Ah yeah.

And the plan works great except that for whatever reason his drumming is way off tone from what the lizardman was laying down. Damn you swamp polyrhythmic complexity!

But the lizard goes down, Fletch keeps playing and nothing happens.

Things that make you go Hmmm . ..

We search the room, finding another mural that depicts a buried skull, perhaps hidden under one of the sarcophagi. The search is on.

And we have to end. The short session is becoming the rule but so what, every game is a blast with this crew.

Watch this space!!

Out of game: Duane tells me we can finish up in one or possibly two sessions if we don’t get too badly sidetracked. Cross a finger!

D tells me that we are so tough now that he has bumped up all the challenges in the dungeon. Which certainly explains a lot!

I was so glad to finally use my wearbear necklace. It was a bit frustrating because the damn thing kept beating my grapple checks anyway but it definitely evened the fight up.

It’s my turn to GM next – no telling what level we will be. Suggestions for our next DCC adventure?

We come back to searching the huge debris filled room. There are several side chambers with sarcophagi along the walls, presumably belonging to the seven barbarian kings that fell under the sway of the ancient demon. A few of them have already been disturbed. Thinking that one of them might contain the demon skull we must find and destroy, we start searching the various coffins.

Each coffin becomes an individual adventure. We acquit ourselves well, I think, but its rough.

The first one we come to has two wolf “statues” in the back. Yeah right – would you believe mummified winterwolves guarding their undead savage king master? Zander calls on the power of Fharlanghn to repel the unholy creatures. It works and Finbar and Fletch make short work of them while they cower in the corner. Carefully uncoiling the gold rope that binds the sarcogophus, we release the undead savage king within. I’d say damn them all but demon-allied undead barbarians come pre-damned.

The next tomb, this one bound in a strange greenish rope, is another hazard. The rope animates and almost kills Fletch while the undead barbarian comes out. Once again the power of Fharlanghn prevails against the creature, while the power of magic longswords dispatch the strange rope.

Still no fair-day goose. Notice that there is never a ruby-encrusted demon skull around when you need it.

The next tomb has a raven and a wolf statue over it. I smell trouble.

We open the tomb and the hideous undead thing actually grabs Zander and pulls him into the stone coffin! Panic now! Finbar keeps cool and grabs him out but before we can get to the creature it disappears! A moment later we find that it has released another undead creature from the last undisturbed tomb and now we have two to fight!

Zander uses the last bit of Fharlanghn’s might and chases the horrible things off down the hallway. Fletch chases them down, comes to a forked passageway and a pit. And inside the pit is a lizardman.

Instinct? Fletch sees the lizard man stuck in the pit attempting to call for help and feels pity. He lowers a rope down. We establish that the lizard man, called something like Endurek, is fighting on the same side as us. With gestures and broken common we come to an understanding; he will help us in our fight.

Which is a good damn thing because a few seconds later the two undead barbarians return.

So at this point we have searched all the tombs and found diddlysquat of demon skulls. There is more exploring to do.

We travel down the passageway, creeping and wending our way. After a few twists and turns we find a room with several lizard men – one of whom is must be their king!

We beat down the guards and some kind of shaman with overwhelming force but the king runs off. Searching for him, we find a slick and water filled passageway that leads to a dead end. We do a quick search – sure enough, there is a secret door leading to . . . the big treasure room!

And there on the wall is the demon skull! Pay dirt!

When things look this simple its time for complete caution. There is a veneer of black moss and whatnot over almost everything. Zander casts a cure disease off his magical prayer beads on the black moss stuff, to no avail. After much ceiling checking, hemming and hawing and paranoid speculation it is decided that we’ll just cowboy up and go into the room and grab the skull.

We weren’t paranoid enough! Halfway across the room Finbar screams and grabs his head. We grab him, drag him out into the hall and revive him.

Once he is away from the skull he reports that he felt like something was trying to take over his mind. Note to all demons: Suck it. Suck it long . . . and suck it hard.

Okay, we decide that we’ll come back to this room. Who knows, perhaps the lizard king running-ass bitch has some kind of talisman or something that makes him immune to the skulls power. Anyway, that’s our hope.

We take the other slippery passageway. Its so slick that we decide to anchor a rope to use as a safety line as we make our way down to the stairs.

We find a water filled chamber with four dragon statues in the corners. There is a dais on one wall, and on it is a huge throne with a barbarian king with an onyx blade. And there is the lizard king! And he looks scared. Ah yeah.

Fletch asks his new lizardman buddy to translate: Surrender or Die! And rather than do either the foul thing transforms into Superlizardkinglightningman!

At once the four dragon statures spit lightning at the king, who glows with its power and rises into the air. Then he waves an arm and the wall collapses – out come four animated statues, intent on dismantling us.

I don’t care who you are – hovering lightning-imbued lizardman king from hell will make you stop and assess.

But we are heroes with a job to do. And now we know where the frickin’ skull is! There is no way we are backing down, not with the safety and future of all the local tribes at stake!

Fletch unlooses arrows at the lizard king, scoring hit after hit. Zander uses his scroll to summon a tiny earth elemental – he first sends the thing after the dragon statues, hoping to smash one and weaken the lizard man, but when that is obviously not working he redirects him at the statues.

Meanwhile, our lizardman buddy charges with his trident, scoring a hit. He takes a nasty lightning bolt to the chest but proves himself a real man by refusing to back down.

Finbar charges into the fray, hampered by the chest-deep (for him) water. When he finally gets close he realizes that he can’t reach the hovering bastard – Fin is just too short! The resourceful dwarf climbs the dais, unceremoniously dumps the old king out of his throne, drags the chair back and stands on it to hit the lizard king.

The lizard king is throwing lightning bolts like he was giving out candy. He hits our lizard man pal again – the poor heroic thing dies. Damn the demon and his machinations! He shoots another at Zander, who dodges it.

Meanwhile, the earth elemental goes down and the statues attack Fletch. Fletch has been peppering the lizard king with arrows the whole time and now has to deal with the statues. He hits one with a dispel magic and it goes inert. The remaining three corner him on the stairs, punishing him with their terrible stone fists. He manages to shove one down the stairs but they keep coming. He draws his magical wooden sword and fights defensively, waiting on the proverbial Calvary to arrive.

And it does! Zander, who earlier had cast a spiritual weapon (his very last spell!) charged the lizard king and got into melee with his short sword, having to leap every time to strike the floating lightning-infused bastard. But its Finbar who deals the death blow with his flail! The pair rush to the aid of Fletcher, who is barely holding on against the onslaught of the living statues.

A few rounds later, Finbar, Zander, and the spiritual quarterstaff manage to take out the statues. And now its time to deal with the skull.

Its a prolonged effort involving folks tied up with ropes, subduing dominated friends and fighting every foot to the Maw. But we do it – we destroy the skull and throw it into the Maw.

At which point the evil surround the land physically disappears! The ground quakes, buildings fall, the sun shines down from the clouds. We did it! We destroyed the demon’s influence on the land of the Savage Kings!

Endgame: we travel back to the friendly barbarians who put us up on the way in. Fletch composes a song which tells of everything that happened there, including our shame at failing to rescue the slaves and the destruction of the demon skull. There is much rejoicing! The tribe throws us a big affair with food and music and dancing.

Now its time for the long journey back to Havenor, and dealing with the most difficult challenge of all . . . Escobar, our merchant contact who will undoubtedly rip us off when we sell him all the neat stuff we found if we don’t keep a careful eye.

THUS ENDS THE LEGACY OF THE SAVAGE KINGS!

Out of Game: The Legacy of the Savage Kings rules! This was a great, multi-faceted dungeon with all kinds of secrets to find and interesting settings to adventure through. And what a satisfying ending! A total blast. Talk about bang for your adventuring buck!

Huge thanks for Duane Waldrop for running an excellent game!

At the end of the Dungeon Zander had used every spell in his repertoire, all of the uses of his magical prayer necklace, every allotted turning attempt, all of his potions and two of the five spells he had saved up on scrolls. Now that’s down to the damn wire!

After Fletch shoved the statue down the stairs (and learning a lesson about how Bull’s Rushing works by way of three successful attacks of opportunity from the animated bastards) he had six hit points. He went full defensive and managed to hang with the trio of statues for the three rounds it took for help to get to him.

It’s my turn to run a dungeon! We are going to do XP and treasure this week – I predict that the guys will wind up 8th level, possibly 9th. I mean to run another DCC – any suggestions?

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